POPE DECREES JUDGE MURDERED BY MAFIA CAN BE BEATIFIED

Pope Francis decreed on Tuesday that Italian judge Rosario Livatino, who was killed by the Mafia in Sicily in 1990, was a martyr for the faith and could be beatified, or declared “blessed.” Livatino, who was a devout Roman Catholic, was gunned down after a Mafia hit squad ran his car off the road as he was driving on a Sicilian highway. Known as the “boy judge” because he looked younger than his 37 years, Livatino had led many investigations into the mob at a time when Sicilian clans were involved in a full-blown war. The decree of martyrdom proposed by the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints and approved by the Pope means there is no need for a miracle to be attributed to Livatino's intercession with God for him to be beatified. A miracle would have to be attributed to Livatino in order for him to be declared a saint.